Job 20 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Each card keeps the independently rendered source readings above their shared comparison and reception notes. The badge records the source’s governing classification; disparate readings are marked in red. Each reading retains its original reference.
Chapter 20
Zophar describes the ruin of the wicked
Source chapters: [BHS20] Hebrew; [LXX20] Greek.
The accessed Hebrew publisher page displays the complete chapter without numeric verse labels. Its twenty-nine successive verse-ending punctuation units are mapped to twenty-nine references. Greek printed asterisk and closing marks are observed but not treated as a collated apparatus.
Verse 20:1 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:1 Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:1 Then Zophar the Minaean replied:
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The place-derived identification differs.
Verse 20:2 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:2 “Therefore my troubled thoughts make me answer,
because of my inward haste.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:2 “I did not expect you to answer back like this,
and you do not understand more than I do.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew describes the speaker’s urgency; Greek denies the hearers’ superior understanding, shifting from singular you to plural you.
Verse 20:3 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:3 I hear a correction that shames me,
and a spirit from my understanding answers me.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:3 I will hear correction that puts me to shame,
and a spirit from understanding answers me.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek lacks the Hebrew possessive my with understanding. Spirit may denote inward impulse; no divine identification is imposed.
Verse 20:4 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:4 Do you know this from of old,
since humankind was placed upon the earth:
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:4 Did you not know these things from of old,
since a human was placed upon the earth?
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both appeal to knowledge from humanity’s earliest time.
Verse 20:5 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:5 that the exulting of the wicked is brief,
and the joy of the godless lasts but a moment?
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:5 For the delight of the ungodly is a terrible fall,
and the joy of the lawless is destruction,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew emphasizes short duration; Greek identifies their joy with catastrophic ruin.
Verse 20:6 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:6 Though his height rises to the heavens
and his head reaches the cloud,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:6 even if his gifts rise to heaven
and his sacrifice touches the clouds.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek gifts and sacrifice replace Hebrew height and head.
Verse 20:7 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:7 he will perish forever like his dung;
those who saw him will say, ‘Where is he?’
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:7 For when he thinks he has become firmly established,
then he will perish utterly;
those who saw him will say, ‘Where is he?’
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek replaces the dung comparison with imagined stability and subsequent destruction.
Verse 20:8 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:8 He flies away like a dream, and they cannot find him;
he is chased away like a vision of the night.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:8 Like a dream that has flown away, he will certainly not be found;
he flew off like a nighttime apparition.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek flying replaces the Hebrew being driven away in the second line.
Verse 20:9 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:9 The eye that glimpsed him will see him no more,
and his place will no longer behold him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:9 An eye glanced past him and will not do so again,
and his place will no longer perceive him.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both describe disappearance from sight and place.
Verse 20:10 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:10 His sons will appease the poor,
and his hands will return his wealth.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:10 May lesser men destroy his sons,
and may his hands blaze with pains.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek wishes for the sons’ destruction and the man’s pain; Hebrew describes appeasing the poor and restoring wealth.
Verse 20:11 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:11 His bones are full of his youthful strength,
and it will lie with him upon the dust.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:11 His bones were filled with his youth,
and it will lie with him upon the mound.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both move from plural bones to a singular subject, provisionally youth or youthful vigor.
Verse 20:12 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:12 Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth
and he hides it under his tongue,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:12 If evil becomes sweet in his mouth,
he will hide it under his tongue;
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both begin the image of savoring evil.
Verse 20:13 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:13 though he cherishes it and will not let it go,
but holds it inside his palate,
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:13 he will not spare it and will not abandon it,
and he will hold it inside his throat.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek explicitly has not spare, whereas Hebrew cherishes or spares. The negative is retained despite the tension with holding on.
Verse 20:14 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:14 his food turns in his bowels;
it is the gall of asps within him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:14 And he will certainly not be able to help himself;
an asp’s gall is in his belly.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek inability to help himself replaces the Hebrew transformation of food; both retain poisonous gall.
Verse 20:15 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:15 He swallowed wealth, but will vomit it up;
God will drive it out of his belly.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:15 Wealth gathered unjustly will be vomited up;
an angel will drag it from his house.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek explicitly names unjust acquisition, an angel and the house; Hebrew names God and the belly. Greek it can grammatically refer to the wealth or the man.
Verse 20:16 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:16 He will suck the venom of asps;
a viper’s tongue will kill him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:16 May he suck the fury of dragons,
and may a serpent’s tongue destroy him.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek optatives are rendered as wishes; its fury and dragons differ from Hebrew venom and asps.
Verse 20:17 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:17 May he not look upon the channels,
the rivers, the streams of honey and curds.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:17 May he not see the milking of grazing herds,
nor pastures of honey and butter.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek milking and pasture imagery differs from Hebrew watercourses.
Verse 20:18 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:18 He returns the fruit of his toil and does not swallow it;
he will not rejoice in the wealth of his exchange.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:18 He toiled for wealth in empty and futile things,
wealth he will not taste,
like gristly meat that cannot be chewed or swallowed.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Hebrew’s compact exchange or restitution clause is provisional. Greek adds the inedible meat comparison; LSJ-STRIPHNOS directly supports gristly meat.
Verse 20:19 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:19 For he crushed and abandoned the poor;
he seized a house that he did not build.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:19 For he shattered the houses of many powerless people;
he seized a dwelling and did not establish it.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek explicitly describes shattered houses of many, where Hebrew directly names oppression and abandonment of the poor.
Verse 20:20 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:20 For he knew no ease in his belly;
he will not escape with what he desired.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:20 There is no deliverance for his possessions;
in his desire he will not be saved.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek’s first clause concerns possessions’ deliverance, rather than the belly’s lack of ease.
Verse 20:21 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:21 Nothing remained for him to eat;
therefore his prosperity will not endure.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:21 There is no remainder of his food;
therefore his good things will not flourish.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Hebrew’s first line may mean nothing escaped his eating; the compressed wording remains provisional. Greek lacks the explicit devouring possibility.
Verse 20:22 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:22 In the fullness of his abundance he will be in distress;
every hand of the troubled will come upon him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:22 When he thinks he is already filled,
he will be afflicted,
and every constraint will come upon him.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew abundance and the hands of sufferers differ from Greek imagined fullness and every constraint.
Verse 20:23 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:23 When he is about to fill his belly,
He will send His burning anger against him
and rain it upon him as his food.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:23 If somehow he might fill his belly,
may He send a fury of wrath upon him
and shower pains upon him.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: The divine agent is inferred from context in both. Hebrew’s final belhumo is difficult, provisionally as his food; Greek explicitly showers pains and uses optatives.
Verse 20:24 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:24 He will flee from an iron weapon;
a bronze bow will pierce him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:24 He will certainly not be saved from the hand of iron;
may a bronze bow wound him.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Both contrast escape from iron with injury from bronze; Greek gives a wish in the second line.
Verse 20:25 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:25 He draws it, and it comes out of his body;
the flashing point comes out of his gall.
Terrors are upon him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:25 May an arrow pass through his body,
and may lightning bolts walk among his dwellings;
terrors are upon him.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew describes drawing a projectile from the gall or gallbladder; Greek has lightning in dwellings. Hebrew’s final motion may attach differently to the terrors clause.
Verse 20:26 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:26 Every darkness is stored up for his treasures;
a fire not fanned will consume him;
it will go badly for the survivor in his tent.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:26 May every darkness remain for him;
an unkindled fire will consume him,
and may a stranger harm his house.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek stranger harming a house differs from Hebrew harm to its survivor; the paradoxical unkindled fire is retained.
Verse 20:27 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:27 The heavens will uncover his guilt,
and the earth will rise against him.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:27 May heaven uncover his lawless deeds,
and may earth rise against him.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek again frames the coming disclosure as wishes.
Verse 20:28 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:28 The produce of his house will depart,
flowing away in the day of His anger.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:28 May destruction drag his house utterly away;
may a day of wrath come upon him.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew flowing produce differs from Greek destruction dragging the house away.
Verse 20:29 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
20:29 This is the wicked person’s portion from God,
and the inheritance appointed to him by God.”
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
20:29 This is an ungodly person’s portion from the Lord,
and the possession of his belongings from the Overseer.”
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Greek explicitly uses Lord and Overseer. Hebrew imro, literally His utterance, is provisionally an appointed allotment; the Greek’s awkward possession clause is retained.